


Goodbye

by Nerdyesque



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, post-college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-05 12:52:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdyesque/pseuds/Nerdyesque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years ago she thought she'd made her choice when she left Neptune. Ten years later she realized she'd just delayed it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Two things prompted this - the trailer for the VM movie and Avril Lavigne's song "Goodbye" (because at heart I'm still a fourteen year old girl). As soon as I heard the lyric "Goodbye brown eyes/Goodbye for now/Goodbye sunshine, take care of yourself" I immediately thought of Piz for some reason. The song is wistful and melancholic, but there's a bit of hope at the end. This wasn't beta'd and I wrote it in twenty minutes before posting it. If there are any typos or grammar mistakes, oh well.

It was never supposed to end like this.

No, scratch that. It wasn't supposed to  _end_.

But it had.

They had.

Again.

It was time for her to go.

Tears welled in bright blue eyes, washing them to the gradually dimming twilight over Neptune's beach as she stared at her love, seeing his face crumble with recognition and resignation. It wasn't the first time they'd come to this point, but this time. This time it would be the last.

She'd finally made her choice, and they both knew it wasn't him.

It couldn't be him, no matter how much she told herself and him, he was never going to be the right choice for her.

Ten years had brought her to the fork in the road, the decision she thought she'd made when she left both of them behind to start a new life far away from the drama of her teenaged years. She'd become a new person, had a new outlook on life, and one phone call undid all those years of work to reveal she'd just daubed paint over the truth.

She might not be Veronica Mars Teen Detective anymore, but she still fought for truth, justice, and the Neptune way.

Piz couldn't truly understand it no matter how many times he heard her stories - the only one who knew the truth apart from those who'd lived it with her - because he hadn't been there. He hadn't seen the horrors, triumphs, and failures. His hand had held hers during the better years, the years of struggling to be someone else, not struggling to just  _be_  someone.

"I knew the minute you told me he needed your help..."

His voice trails off, thick with emotion.

Veronica nodded. She'd felt Logan's pull too, in the root of her just as she always had. She'd tried to fight it, remind herself she wasn't  _that girl_  any longer, and she wouldn't ever help the man who never treated her like a princess, or the love of his life, not like Piz always did.

No, Logan had buried her beneath the furious disdain of his chaotic emotions, confused her with the afterimage of Lilly imprinted on the backs of his eyelids. Their love was feral, angry, and heartfelt; he understood the raw dark nature she hid from herself, from the rest of the world because no one could understand that drive,  _someone always pays_.

She'd learned too late the cost of such vengeance, and had run from the consequences. Coming back to Neptune was supposed to righting those wrongs, fixing what she left undone, but Logan had changed just enough, had healed just right, that she felt their pieces slotting back together again as seamlessly as they did when they were twelve, sixteen, twenty.

It hadn't seemed like he'd changed, being accused for murder of another lovely blonde, but she'd seen what no one else could: the girl was a stand in for what he really wanted. What he needed. And there was no way Logan would ever murder, even in absentia, Lilly or Veronica, the White and Black Queens of his heart. His rage was always directed at  _men_ , never women.

"I love him. I always have. I always will."

Piz nodded. Defeated. Alone and proud.

"I was better for you than he ever was. I am what you deserve."

"But you're not what I need," she quietly explained, finally finding the words that had eluded her for the past few years. "I love you" had tripped from her tongue to his ear so easily, a sign she was certain, of her maturity and the clarity of an adult relationship devoid of drama or heartbreak, but not something she truly meant in the marrow of her bones. At least not like she meant it when she rushed across country to defend Logan as if it were ten minutes, not ten years since they last met.

"Be happy, Veronica. Please."

His type of happiness wasn't hers and it solidified her resolve because he would never understand it. He just couldn't.

"Goodbye," she whispered.


	2. Be Kind, Rewind: Prequel to the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew better; he really did. But she wouldn't do that to him _again_. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I'm writing this, especially now, but it popped into my head and I couldn't resist. Yes, the movie is out and we know everything that went down, but this doesn't follow that exactly.

It took one phone call to ruin his life, but Piz wasn't surprised.

He never was when it concerned Logan Echolls; the man had a way of ruining everything good. He was like Midas, except instead of turning everything to gold, he turned it to shit. 

"You're leaving?"

Veronica didn't turn at his question, her attention focused on packing. "Yeah, Logan needs my help."

That was it; the only explanation he received from his girlfriend of four years.

_Logan needs my help._

Sadly he _didn't_ need more from her because it really was all he needed to know. Their first attempt at a relationship fell apart after Logan assaulted him based simply upon an erroneous conclusion; Piz was a forgiving person, but even he couldn't understand how Veronica was able to move past that, especially since Piz wasn't guilty as Logan has assumed. It didn't matter she never went back to her ex because Piz had seen that fiery look between them, the silent conversation he wasn't privy to, or the explanations he never received. It was tied up with their past, the Neptune trauma he'd read about but would never understand because he hadn't lived it. Wallace and Mac didn't have words for him whenever he asked, so he'd swallowed his questions and lived on a hope that died in the aftermath of that single look.

Fast forward three years, he ran into Veronica on the streets of New York of all places, and realized there was a glimmer of possibility when she was as beautiful and interesting as he pretended to forget. Even better, she'd  _changed_ and wasn't the gung-ho girl detective he'd originally fallen for, but a gentler version. More a "Ronnie" than "Veronica Mars." Piz couldn't deny the thrill at meeting the girl who giggled at his jokes and arched into his touch without the hint of tension he'd seen the first time around. Their lives and careers were neatly dovetailed and he'd foolishly ignored the warning voice whispering in the back of his head: a nice boy from Beaverton, OR didn't get the girl. Or more specifically,  _this_ girl. 

Sighing deeply, he dropped onto their bed next to her open suitcase, and rubbed a hand across his forehead. 

"Would you have told me where you were going before you got there if I hadn't come home?"

Veronica stopped her frantic movements, brow wrinkled. "What's that supposed to mean?'

"Did you forget we had dinner plans?" For their anniversary. Piz watched her face closely, waiting for comprehension to fill her.

"Oh, yeah," she shrugged. "Sorry, I should've called to cancel but I was too busy trying to figure out the logistics of getting to Neptune and everything."

Pain struck deep and true as Piz realized she really didn't remember the purpose of their plans. He was fiercely aware of the box secreted in the inner pocket of his tailored jacket. It felt much heavier than it should've given the relative lightness of its contents. 

"Why does Logan need you? He can't get a high-priced lawyer out there?"

The words were hardly out of his mouth before he perceived his mistake. While Piz hadn't understood the Logan-n-Veronica show, he had understood she was fiercely protective of it regardless of how their relationship had ended. He knew she hadn't seen or talked to him in ten years, but it wouldn't make a difference. The dark blue eyes flayed him where he sat as the sensuous lips he loved screwed up into a tight frown. "I'm not going out there to defend him in court, Piz."  He winced at the pronunciation of his name. Only Veronica could make the syllable of his nickname into a curse. "I'm going there to prove he didn't do it."

Of course she was. 

Veronica zipped the suitcase closed and Piz wondered if she heard the finality of the gesture like he did. 

 


End file.
